Congress demands probe into Sharda Group chit fund case

Kolkata, April 20 (IANS) The opposition Congress Saturday accused West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress government of having close links with chit fund-funded Saradha Group, which has gone bust, and demanded probe by the CBI and capital market regulator SEBI.

"The state government has very close relations with a few groups and people, and it stopped the government from taking appropriate actions at the right time," Congress's state unit president Pradip Bhattacharya said here.

"We demand that investigations are made by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) so that the truth can be unearthed. At the same time we demand that the depositors should be properly compensated," he added.

Over 1,000 agents of the Saradha Group Friday held a demonstration in front of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's house here, urging her to bail them out. Many offices of the group were attacked across the state Saturday. There were also incidents of clashes between the agents and the depositors.

Bhattacharya demanded the government to tackle the situation on war-footing and also that a white paper be published on Trinamool Congress's alleged links with the non-banking financial company.

"The government should prove by publishing a paper that top Trinamool leaders are not directly or indirectly associated with the company," the Congress leader said.

He said the party would carry out a law violation programme April 23 in all the districts of the state to protest against the chit fund mess.